Final edition of the Heartland Market was published on July 25

By Chad Koenen

Publisher

After nearly 50 years, the final edition of the Heartland Market was published on Monday, July 25. Due to a decrease in advertising, the Heartland Market will no longer be published and included in 13 area newspapers. 

The Heartland Market was the brainchild of New York Mills Herald publisher Michael Parta. It began as a common advertising supplement to 10 newspapers, the stockholders of Vikingland Publishers, Inc., (VPI), under the masthead of The Market. 

The first issue of The Market was published on Aug. 8, 1973 with a circulation of 30,904 copies in the Norman County Index (Ada), Barnesville Record-Review, Battle Lake Review, Detroit Lakes Record, Hawley Herald, Henning Advocate, Mahnomen Pioneer, New York Mills Herald, Park Rapids Enterprise and Sebeka Menahga Review Messenger.

In January 1993, a majority of participating publishers voted to merge The Market with The Heartland Canary, another advertising supplement carried by several common members covering a market reaching farther south, to form The Heartland Market. Initial circulation in February 1993 was over 50,000 copies inserted into 17 member newspapers.

Over the years the circulation changed as newspapers came on board and others left the common supplement. The final circulation of the Heartland Market was approximately 17,250. The final edition of the Heartland Market was featured in the Barnesville Record-Review, Battle Lake Review, Clay County Union, Eagle Bend/Bertha/Clarissa Independent News Herald, Hawley Herald, Citizen’s Advocate, Long Prairie Leader, Nevis Northwoods Press, New York Mills Dispatch, Parkers Prairie Independent, Sebeka Menahga Review Messenger, Staples World and Verndale Sun